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summer reading
Scandanavian War Machine:
I plan on finishing this massive book of H.P. Lovecraft stories I've been reading as well as probably Maus (assuming it wins the book talk poll thingy).
Beyond that, I've been thinking about rereading Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House which is a collection of his short stories, some of which are gloriously fan-fucking-tastic. Also been thinking about rereading 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea but I'm not sure if I'm ready for page after page of detailed scientific descriptions of mundane ocean life again (I only read it last summer, I think, for the first time)
There's also a new Dan Simmons book that sounds pretty interesting. I forget the name, but it's about a Native American boy who touches the dying General Custer's body and is possessed by his spirit (or something). Should be interesting; I've been enjoying the historical fiction phase Simmons has been going through lately.
BlahBlah:
--- Quote from: Jeans on 25 May 2010, 06:17 ---It looks like this is going to be Beat Summer as far as my reading is concerned - I just finished On The Road and got The Town and the City for my birthday, and might try to pick up The Dharma Bums and The Subterraneans, maybe even collected poems. After that I was thinking maybe Hemingway or H.S. Thompson! I'm not sure though. First of all I'll have to finish whatever book the book club comes up with.
--- End quote ---
Read some thompson! He's probably my favourite author. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and fear and loathing on the campaign trail are both brilliant. Get The Great Shark Hunt after those, it has most of his best articles in it - kentucky derby, aztlan, etc.
I'm on a big David Foster Wallace kick right now. I read Infinite Jest a few months ago but just started the broom of the system this week and ordered some of his short story collections. I'd highly recommend Infinite Jest, it's a wonderful and completely enthralling novel. Don't let the length put you off.
Hoping to read a book every day or two in the summer.
De_El:
My first read of the summer was Ender's Game, which I had never read before, but an abundance of free time and a pushy best mate finally convinced me. It was quite good! I don't really feel obliged to read anything else by Orson Scott Card, though, with the possible exception of Speaker for the Dead. I feel like filling in too many extraneous details, or associating lesser sequels or companion series with the book I liked so well may sour its charm.
Since then I've been slogging my way through book four of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, A Feast for Crows. It's definitely enjoyable reading, but it is a long book, and because of the way Martin split the plot and perspectives between this and the perpetually forthcoming 5th book, there's a lot less to make me want to tear through it like I did the first three books. Especially after the sheer number of game-changing events in the preceding book, A Storm of Swords, this book is much less easy to get through. It's not difficult reading, of course. There're just way fewer sympathetic characters and it feels like not as much is happening.
After that, I'm not sure! I picked up an old pulp thriller by John D. MacDonald at a thrift store on a whim, but I dunno if I want to go straight to another kind of genre fiction right after reading sci-fi and fantasy. It'll certainly be a much quicker read, but then I just have to wonder what to read again.
smack that isaiah:
--- Quote from: De_El on 25 May 2010, 14:33 ---My first read of the summer was Ender's Game, which I had never read before, but an abundance of free time and a pushy best mate finally convinced me. It was quite good! I don't really feel obliged to read anything else by Orson Scott Card, though, with the possible exception of Speaker for the Dead. I feel like filling in too many extraneous details, or associating lesser sequels or companion series with the book I liked so well may sour its charm.
--- End quote ---
Although, the parallax novel to Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, is amazing. All of my friends who have read it prefer Shadow over Game. It follows Bean around, and reveals a lot. It's amazing, truly. I didn't like most of the books following Ender's Game too much, but all the ones about Bean (the Shadow series) were great.
And, Speaker for the Dead takes place centuries later, anyway, I don't think it fills in all too many details (although, it has been a while since I read it, perhaps it does).
De_El:
Yeah! The fact that the narrative of Speaker for the Dead is so removed from that of Ender's Game is what made me think it had the most potential. I guess I may give Ender's Shadow a try, but not for a while yet.
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